This invention relates to the field of machines for packeting cigarettes in packets of the hinge-lid type and, in particular, has as its subject a device for varying the arrangement of packets passing through the channel placed at the exit on one of the machines, in such a way as to prepare them for the future processing operations, such as, for example, the attaching of the State revenue stamp or of the sealing strip.
According to the known art, because of their particular shape and the materials used, hinge-lid packets have to necessarily be subjected, once they have been completed on the above-mentioned packeting machines, to a drying process in respect of their glued parts.
This drying process which, compared with the time taken to perform the various folding and wrapping operations, lasts a relatively long time, commences in a device in which the finished packets are accumulated. This device belongs to the packeting machine itself. It can be in the form of a column in which the packets are stacked or in the form of an intermittently rotatable cylinder or wheel, provided with radial, peripheric pockets in which the packets are housed, placed on edge with respect to the bases of the cylinder.
In both cases, the non fully dried glued parts on each packet are, during this stage, locked rigidly in position either by the contiguous packets (in the case of a stacking column) or by rigid walls (in the case of a cylinder), in such a way as to prevent any possibility of their coming apart.
Since, however, it has been seen that the time the packets stay in the storage device is insufficient for the glued parts to be dried thoroughly, the drying operation is concluded outside the hinge lid cigarette packeting machine. It is concluded particularly on the initial section of the channel, located immediately after this machine, used for supplying the basically finished packets, via an intermittently moving conveyor belt, to means which effect the further processing operations and, first of all, the attaching to the individual packets of the sealing strip and/or State revenue Stamp.
At this initial section of the channel, the packets arrive placed on edge on the conveyor belt, moving along transversely with respect to their longitudinal axis, side by side and tightly up against one another so as to continue to be rigidly locked in position.
This particular arrangement of the packets makes it possible, furthermore, for the length of the section of the channel needed to complete the drying process to be limited considerably, yet for the time the packets remain therein to be longer than would be the case if an alternative method were to be adopted, and to follow the rhythm at which the packets are passed onto the devices operating further along the line.
So far as all this has been considered up to this point, it appears quite satisfactory. However, the requirements for attaching sealing strips or State revenue stamps or the like must also be considered. They make is necessary for the strip or seal applicator to have easy, adequate access to the area surrounding the hinge-lid of each individual packet. For this purpose, in turn, the packets must be spaced apart, and must be oriented so as to present the hinge-lid in forward orientation. They must still rest on edge, with the cigarettes lying horizontally.
The present invention has the object to achieve this spacing apart and reorienting of the horizontally disposed hinge-lid packets. It has the further object to achieve this by a device that is simple and economical.